The Church of Utrecht was joined in 1870 by those clergy and laity who objected to the First Vatican Council. The Union of Utrecht was formed to incorporate the various groups within Continental Europe. They began to use the title Old Catholic to distinguish themselves from the Roman Catholic Church.[3] The Old Catholic Church in Great Britain was established in 1908 with the consecration of the former Roman Catholic priest Arnold Harris Mathew. In 1910, he broke with the Old Catholics over what he believed to be increasing modernism in their beliefs and practices.

Archbishop Mathew consecrated Archbishop Rudolph de Landes-Berghes to head the church in the United States in 1914. De Landes-Berghes consecrated Carmel Henry Carfora, who led the church when de Landes-Berges joined the Roman Catholic Church. Carfora headed the church until 1958, and it at one time boasted over 50 parishes.[4] However, several groups left for Orthodoxy and when Carfora died the church split into various factions. Since 1958, there have been attempts to gather together the various dioceses and jurisdictions that constituted the church.[5]

The church is part of the Old Roman Catholic Church in Great Britain under it archbishop and metropolitan bishop, Douglas Titus Lewins. The church joined this group in 2013 as it believed it was the closest successor to Archbishop Mathew's church in Great Britain. The Archbishop of the Old Roman Catholic Church in America is William Myers.